SF story about a man who shows up in a world of women wanting adventure

September 30, 2013 11:27 AM

I'm trying to remember a science fiction story about a peaceful future in which there are only women and a time-traveling man shows up wanting adventure ("What, you don't have war? No soldiers?"), and I can't remember the title and can't google it up. Maybe by Joanna Russ? (End-of-story spoiler inside.)

The women, mystified by his insistence that life isn't life without the chance to test yourself against mortality, inject him with a disease that has a 50-50 chance of killing him, thinking this should satisfy his requirements. Thanks for any assistance!

posted by languagehat to Writing & Language (5 answers total)

Except for the nature of the drug, this sounds like Tiptree's "Houston, Houston, Do You Read?".
posted by dorque at 11:33 AM on September 30, 2013

Response by poster: Certainly a similar concept, but this was a short (maybe even short-short) story, not a novella, and the nature of the drug is definitely part of it (it's the surprise ending).
posted by languagehat at 11:57 AM on September 30, 2013

My first thought was Joanna Russ as well. I don't remember the specifics - I think the planet they were on was called Whileaway. And the book was called The Female Man. Though I may be conflating two of her books.
posted by january at 12:39 PM on September 30, 2013 [1 favorite]

I think it's When It Changed-- the Whileaway story, indeed.
posted by jenfullmoon at 2:10 PM on September 30, 2013

Response by poster: Again, similar theme but no dice. Must have disease injection as surprise ending!
posted by languagehat at 3:00 PM on September 30, 2013